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[attr="class","textbox"]The League wasn't perfect, but so far they hadn't asked Isaac to commit any great atrocities for the gain of a small handful. He'd take their flaws and failures over Walsh's total domination. Besides, at least they could rally for the League to change. To do such against Rocket was to forfeit his life.[break][break]

No wonder he'd been so scared to follow Jojo's lead.[break][break]

"Ah, c'mon. I think you deserve at least one," he teased. "But, hell. Thanks for not being a jerk about it. I'm not proud of how long it took me to make the jump, but you smoothing out the way helped."[break][break]

Another world existed, one where Johanna blew the whistle about his affiliation. Without the gym challenge, he'd both lack understanding of what Hoenn's strongest fight for and the training to match them tit-for-tat. His civilian life would be torn away as League investigators sought to bring him to justice. With nowhere else to go, he could only imagine himself turning to Rocket, less out of desire and more because his life depended on it. Would he ever be okay with how they operated? Would he even have a choice?[break][break]

That simple act of kindness, of following her heart instead of the books, may have saved his life. How could he not admire her?[break][break]

The time for joking around and secrets had drawn to a close. Jojo's charges had arrived, and their mission was as deceptively simple as it was inevitably dangerous. Follow along the road with a ton of noncombatants and tow. Simple? Yes. Easy? Hell no.[break][break]

Luckily for them, they had the north wind at their backs.[break][break]

What seemed like a large Kingambit took point in front of the group. Kurze was one of Isaac's oldest and most trustworthy Pokemon. Nothing would seem out of the ordinary due to his presence, and he was an intimidating enough threat that he'd rack up some early attention. That early attention, if pursued, would be sure to fail; after all, Haru the Hisuian Zoroark cared not for the Fighting atacks that posed such a threat to Kurze. So unaffected was he that they might not even break his Illusion.[break][break]

"We shouldn't have too much of an escort out at once," Isaac figured. "More Pokemon out, more chances we're spotted. But Kurze here should be more than enough to kick things off." With that, Isaac turned an eye to the open road ahead. "Don't worry. You're all in the best hands you could ask for. Oh, and mine too, I guess."[break][break]

Arceus damnit, he'd get Jojo's self esteem up one way or another!